The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
IP telephony is a technology that allows voice telephone calls to be made over the worldwide packet data communications network known as the “Internet” without traversing the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN). The increased availability of low cost Internet access and inexpensive IP telephony devices make using the Internet for telephone calls particularly attractive for end users. Moreover, aside from the cost of Internet access, transmitting data over the Internet is free for end users.
Because of the benefits of IP telephony, some business organizations have installed IP telephones (“IP phones”) that use a business organization's intranet for internal calls and the Internet for external calls. Each IP phone is a node on the network and has its own IP address and Media Access Control (MAC) layer address. A call manager manages calls in a manner similar to the way a switch manages calls in a conventional private branch exchange (PBX) and PSTN arrangement.
IP phone arrangements provide several advantages over conventional PBX arrangements. First, business organizations can use their existing broadband Internet access to make external calls, so additional Internet access connections are generally not required. Second, recurring costs can be significantly lower in IP phone arrangements since local and long distance telephone service charges are avoided completely. Although there is a capital expense required to purchase the IP phones, the long-term savings can easily exceed this expense. Third, IP phones are very mobile since the phone extension and privileges are associated with the physical IP phone, instead of a physical connection. Thus, IP phones can be physically moved within an organization and the IP phones retain their phone extensions and privileges.
Despite the advantages provided by IP phone arrangements over conventional PBX arrangements, IP phone arrangements do have some drawbacks. One problem is that unauthorized individuals can obtain and move an IP phone to another location and then access all of the privileges associated with the IP phone. This problem may be more prevalent in medium and large size organizations that have large numbers of IP phones that are difficult to track. Another problem is that IP phones are subject to being “hacked” by devices that have connectivity to the Internet and that “spoof” the MAC address of the IP phones. Such devices are sometimes referred to as “phantom” phones.
Based upon the foregoing, there is a need for an approach for tracking IP telephony devices in networks. There is a particular need for an approach for tracking IP phones in networks that detects changes in physical connections of IP phones. There is yet a further need for an approach for tracking IP phones in networks that includes reporting of changes in physical connections of IP phones.